Francis Strachan was born at a
Nelson lodging house in the Wood on June 5, 1895. The midwife in attendance was Nurse Mabel
Atkinson, daughter of prominent Nelson lawyer, Arthur Atkinson and his wife,
Jane Maria nee Richmond.[1] After the birth, Nurse Mabel took mother and baby
to stay at her home, Fairfield House, so they could recuperate before the
arduous journey back to Ngatimoti. Later, at the age of 50, Mabel Atkinson would
work with the St John Ambulance service in France during the First World War.

Manawatane, Frank’s new home, was a large farm in a valley off the Thorpe-Orinoco Road. His father, Alexander (Alec) Cochrane
Strachan (b. 1862) was the third son of Benjamin Strachan, a Scottish cooper, and
his wife, Jean Pringle nee Cochrane, who emigrated from Roslin, near Edinburgh, to
Nelson on the Admiral Grenfell in
1853, along with their son Jamie, who later died in 1861 at the age of twelve. [2] Alec had two older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth (Lily), an older brother,
Gavin, and two younger brothers, John (Jack) and Thomas (Tom). They were all
born at Lodder's Lane, Riwaka, where his family first settled, later establishing a farm at Brooklyn, but in 1872 the family moved to
Orinoco, where Benjamin had obtained a Crown Grant for 108 acres
at the head of what would become known as Strachan Road.

While the rest of the family travelled
in a spring cart driven by a Riwaka neighbour, 10-year-old Alec and his
14-year-old brother Gavin were given the responsibility for driving the family’s
milking cows from Riwaka to Orinoco, trudging along via Lower Moutere and the Waiwhero valley.
Bridges were few and roads often not much more than bridle tracks through the bush, so it was
slow going. Ngatimoti was not yet in sight and darkness was falling, so it was a great relief to be met by Orinoco resident John Gower, who had been looking out for the
two boys and helped them the rest of the way to their new home on the hill.

Benjamin Strachan suffered increasingly poor health, so from early on all his children, including his daughters, had to step up
and shoulder a good deal of the hard work involved in breaking in a new farm mostly covered
in dense bush. The hope that New Zealand’s climate would improve his crippling
asthma remained unfulfilled, and Benjamin died in 1889. The four Strachan
brothers formed a partnership as they grew up. As well as running the farm and
adding to the family’s holdings, they worked as coopers and carpenters. They had
a workshop and smithy behind the homestead where they turned out buckets, butter churns, casks and
kegs for sale. Casks used to transport the raspberries harvested around
Ngatimoti to the jam factory in Motueka accounted for a large part of their
trade.

One by one the Strachan brothers
married and moved to farms of their own. Alec married Mary Rebecca Bowden,
daughter of the Rev. Thomas Adolphus Bowden and his wife Caroline Emma (nee
Treacher), who arrived in Nelson in 1855 on the ship John Phillips. Mary's father, the Rev. Bowden, had been ordained as an Anglican minister,
but contact with the Oxford Movement left him with recurring doubts about Anglican
doctrine. He had a varied career in New Zealand, alternating preaching with
teaching, but spent some time as resident minister for Wakefield, Waimea West
and Spring Grove after representations from the settlers there. The family’s tent was used for services until a church was
built. This was St Paul’s Church, dedicated at Spring Grove in 1857, and Mary, born in 1859, was the first baby to be baptised in the new church. The Bowdens were living in Wellington when her older sister Emily married Edward Fearon Burrell at Trentham in 1869. Edward for some time taught at the Dovedale School and had substantial holdings of land in the Orinoco/Dovedale area. Edward and Emily eventually settled at the head of the Orinoco Valley, their home, Penton, being at the foot of Jacob’s Ladder. In 1874 fifteen-year-old Mary went to live with the Burrells to help her sister, who had two young children and another one on the way, and also supported herself by teaching music to private pupils. She met Alec Strachan, who lived just down the road, and on the 7th of August, 1894, they married at St Paul's Church, Brightwater, where Mary had been christened, the Rev. William Baker officiating. [4] Thomas
Bowden gifted his daughter Mary 400 acres of land adjoining Manawatane on the occasion of her
marriage, swelling the home farm to 600 acres.

Frank as a boy in 1905 with his sister Jean holding their

baby sister Edith, dressed in her christening gown.

Francis (known as Frank) was their
firstborn and only son, and a source of great pride and joy to his parents. A sunny-natured and dutiful child, he grew up in a devout and loving home, surrounded by a large, affectionate network of relations; grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins from both
sides of the family, including Strachans, Bowdens, Burrells and Guys. Alec Strachan
ended up living with his family at the original homestead, Manawatane, while his three brothers when married set up homes on
farms in close proximity. Both their sisters married farmers. Mary
married John Beatson who farmed near Blenheim but around 1902 moved to a farm named "Rosebank" in Stoke, and Lily married John Arliss Guy of "Sunny Brae", whose lands bounded
those of Manawatane. Frank had two
younger sisters; Jean Caroline, born in 1897, and Edith Mary, born 1905. From early childhood Frank was involved in fundraising for Barnado's Homes in New Zealand and exchanged correspondence with Dr Thomas Barnardo himself. Frank's mother, Mary, was a tireless worker for the cause. She helped organise the regular fundraising events held in the district on their behalf and nearly all the children in the district had their "Dr Barnardo boxes" - distributed and collected by Mrs Strachan.[5]

Frank tossing hay up to the haystack -helping out at "Meadowbank",

the farm of his uncle John (Jack) Campbell Strachan

on the flats at the foot of Church Hill.

Both Frank and Jean were initially
taught at home, but started at Orinoco School in February, 1904. From June 1905,
Frank, aged 10, spent a year as a boarder at Miss Hooper’s “Zephyr Lodge”, a preparatory
school in Nile Street, Nelson.[6] He then returned to the Orinoco School before attending Nelson College as a boarder
for a year in 1909-10. He then settlied into a busy life at home. There was plenty to do on the Strachans' well-established, large mixed farm. A diary
kept by Frank records
full days of farm work shaped by the seasons and gives a vivid picture of a co-operative rural community dependent on neighbourly goodwill. Like others in the area, Frank often pitched in to help out on
the farms of relatives and neighbours. Local men were also periodically
employed to help out at more hectic times like shearing and haymaking or with fencing and building projects. There
were regular attendances at Ngatimoti’s St James Anglican Church and exchanged
visits with family and friends. His mother Mary was a member of the Ngatimoti Mothers' Union, and he would sometimes drive her to meetings. He was particularly close to his Guy cousins,
Walter, Hector and Arthur, the sons of his Aunt Lily (nee Strachan). Both the Guys and the Strachans had a long-standing friendship with William and Nellie de
Castro, who lived at Tahunanui, and an understanding developed between Frank
and their daughter, Margaret (Margie). A lot of time was also spent drilling
with the Senior Cadets and later the Territorials. Frank trained as a member of the 10th (Nelson) Mounted Rifles of the NZ Territorial Force and highlights included annual camps held at George MacMahon's Tapawera farm and taking part in a military tournament held in Auckland in January 1914 to coincide with the Auckland Exhibition.

Family gathering at "Manawatane", Jan. 1st, 1909

.... a large and affectionate network of aunts, uncles and cousins...

War broke out in August, 1914, and
gradually cousins, neighbours and friends joined the NZ Expeditionary Force and disappeared
overseas. Mary Strachan and her sister-in-law Lily Guy became active in Motueka's Red Cross Society, raising subscriptions and making care packages to be sent overseas.Lady Liverpool, the Governor's wife, spearheaded a campaign to get women and schoolchildren contributing towards such care packages, especially by knitting socks, balaclavas and scarves. This campaign was such a success that a patriotic knitting song became a very popular hit, and Pat Beatson recalls the children of Ngatimoti singing it in the playground at school.[7]

Frank's sweetheart, Margie de Castro, at left, seen next to her friend,

Daisy Guy (Frank's cousin), at the Guy family home, "Sunny Brae."

Before long, reports of deaths and injury started filtering back. William Ham's was the first death - he was wounded at the Battle of the Suez Canal and died on February, 5th, 1915. Gallipoli took its toll, including popular 12th Company officer, Alister Forsythe, Frank Hobson from Lloyds' Valley and Alan de Castro, brother of Frank's sweetheart, Margie. One of Frank’s Bowden cousins was also killed - Keble Reginald Bowden was the son of Frank’s uncle Walter Ellis Bowden and his wife Clara, who lived in Nelson. It seems likely that he was named for one of his grandfather Thomas’ Oxford Movement heroes, John Keble. Hector Guy was wounded at Quinn's Post and Cyprian Brereton, commanding officer of the 12th (Nelson) Company and Hector Guy's good friend, was suffered a serious head injusry at the "Daisy Patch" during a doomed charge at the Second Battle for the the village of Krothia. Cyprian married Hector's sister, Margaret (Daisy) Guy, while convalescing in London. Cyprian Brereton was known as "Cousin Cyp" to the Guy and Strachan familes - his uncle, John Brereton, had married John Guy's sister, Eleanor Gertrude Guy, in 1883, making Cyprian Brereton and Daisy Guy cousins to a degree.

Cousins Frank Strachan (left) and Arthur Guy trained at Trentham Military Camp together

As an only son, whose input on the farm was significant to
his family’s economic welfare, it must have been hard for Frank go, but he and his family were very conscious of doing their patriotic duty. Along with his
cousin Arthur Guy, he enlisted with the NZ Expeditionary Force at Motueka on June, 1916 for the Reserves, 12th (Nelson) Company of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion, and they both signed their attestation forms at Trentham Military Camp, Wellington, on 12
January, 1916. Frank and Arthur shared a tent during training and also the
measles! Sickness in camp was rife, with trainees regularly going
down with a variety of infectious diseases. Frank was hospitalised twice - with influenza on 1 January, 1916 and then a couple of months later with the measles on 12 March. The Reserve Company trainees spent the period between February 18 and May 12, 1916, at Featherston Camp, as Trentham had become too crowded and unhealthy.

After five months training, they were
deemed ready to head overseas. Frank's parents and sisters Jean and Edith travelled to Wellington by coastal steamer on the 24th of May to see him off. They were able to spend some time with Frank before he and Arthur embarked with the 13th Reinforcements on 29 May, 1916on the SS Willochra, known for for this voyage as HMNZT. 54. An official farewell presided over by the Governor, the Earl of Liverpool, was held for the troops at Newtown Park on the morning of the 30th, and as Frank and his family returned to the ship later that day they met Walter Guy, freshly arrived in Wellington on the SS Pateenaand heading for Trentham to begin his training. The ship set off at 10.30 am on the 31st May, and the Strachans were at the wharf to wave Frank and Arthur off. "It was very nice you being able to get down to see us off," wrote Frank in a letter to his mother, "We could see Edith sitting on Father's shoulder waving until we got a long way out and then she got then, and then I think we saw you standing on the wharf after most of the people had gone."

The Reserve Companydisembarked at Devonport in England and further training followed at Sling Camp. Frank and Arthur were happy to see a familiar face from Ngatimoti there. In a letter sent home Frank commented, "Les Green is a Staff-Sergeant-Major in this camp. I saw him last night, he looks very well; he said both Hector and Cyp are over in France". While in England Frank managed to fit in quite a bit of sight-seeing while on leave - visiting Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral and being taken on a whistle-stop tour around all the major London landmarks by Hubert Bowden and his wife, cousins with whom he stayed for a few days. Arthur decided to transfer to the relatively new Cyclists Corps and for the first tiem since enlisting the two cousins were separated as Arthur had to stay on for further training, while Frank was deployed to France on September 1, 1916. He was happy to be transferred to Hector Guy's company early in October, Hector by this time having been promoted to Company Sergeant-Major. On the 12th of November, 1916, Frank was killed in
the field during the Battle of the Somme when a hand grenade struck the parados of the trench where he was sheltering. He was 21, and not yet been directly involved in action on the battlefield. His death was very quick and several letters of condolence sent to his family commented on his peaceful
appearance. "His expression was perfectly peaceful and quite natural and happy, and smiling", said one. Hector had the sad job of writing to his aunt and uncle with the
grim news. “This is a very hard letter for me to write, but I must face the
difficulty. Poor old Frank was killed this afternoon by a bomb bursting in the
trench. He died in about two minutes. His death was a great shock to Cyp and
myself. Frank was very popular with Officers, N.C.O.s and men". [8]

Hector Guy was himself killed in Belgium nearly a year
later, and his older brother Walter in France on 27 March, 1918. Under the
conditions of the 1916 Military Service Act, their father John Guy was able to
get an dispensation for his last surviving son, Arthur, to be sent home early. Cyprian Brereton added in a separate note, "Frank died a soldier's death under the best conditions that could occur; but we feel as if we have lost a brother."

The news of Frank's death devastated his parents, who
despite their unwavering faith, struggled to come to terms with their
loss. Both were involved with the Ngatimoti War Memorial project set in motion
by their niece Daisy Brereton (nee Guy) and they shared their grief with the
Guy family and the de Castros, who had earlier lost their son Alan at
Gallipoli. The Memorial was unveiledon
Anzac Day, 1921, and gave some comfort and perhaps a sense of closure to those whose boys’ graves were so far from
home. In 1923 Frank’s former
sweetheart, Margie de Castro, married Geoffrey Revell,
whose father Thomas was manager of the Union Steam Ship Company in Blenheim.

Rifle volley at the unveiling of the Ngatimoti Memorial on Anzac Day 1921

At the back, a little to the right of the memorial, is Frank's mother Mary Strachan (in black)

supported by sister-in-law Kathleen Strachan (in white blouse) and another female relative. The Guy family home, 'Sunny Brae", can be seen centre rear.

As a labour of love, his mother put
together a privately printed book titled Our Boy, for distribution to family members, dedicated
to Frank’s memory. It contains many happy reminiscences of her son’s life, along with some heartbreaking meditations on the aacceptance of God's will in taking him. It also includes extracts from Frank’s diary and letters exchanged between family
members. After Alec Strachan died in 1929, his widow Mary donated a carved oak reredos, specially made in Christchurch, to St James Church, Ngatimoti, in memory of her husband and son. The reredos features a copy of Da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper. Her daughters, Jean and Edith, gifted St James Church a set of four chancel windows portraying the emblems of St James - two for each side of the altar - also dedicated to the memory of their father, Alec, and brother, Frank.[9] In 1928 Jean married Ngatimoti widower William (Bill) Deverell Whelan, a cousin of Cyprian Brereton's. They had two daughters, Heather and Helen. We owe a great debt to Helen for her work in gathering up and collating the history of the Ngatimoti settlement. Edith never married but lived with her mother at Manawatane until it was sold in 1944. Edith and her mother then moved to Nelson where Mary Strachan died in 1950 at the age of 91.

Memorials

Frank's cousins
Hector Guy and Cyprian Brereton made sure he had a proper funeral, which was
conducted in their presence by Regimental Chaplain, Captain Charles Tobin, and attended as well by three of Frank's friends Frank was
dressed in full uniform and buried under a cross in a nearby apple and pear
orchard. Today he lies beneath a headstone at Rue-Du-Bois Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, Pas de Calais,
France. He is listed on the Nelson-Tasman Roll of Honour and commemorated at
the Ngatimoti War Memorial, Tasman, New Zealand.

6) Our Boy: Francis Alexander Cochrane Strachan. His Letters and Diaries, with a short record of his life, pp14-15. A private publication compiled by Frank's mother, Mary Strachan, and printed in 1920, by L.T. Watkins, Wellington.

Oxford Movement –Encyclopedia Britannica. A 19th century religious movement emanating from Oxford University which aimed at bringing the practices of the Church of England closer to those of the Roman Catholic Church. Leaders of the movement were Edward Pusey, John Keble, John Henry Newman and Richard Froude.

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About Me

"What is history but a fable agreed upon?", asked Napoleon.
I have an abiding fascination with history in all its forms, including historical fiction. My name is Anne McFadgen and I live at Ngatimoti, in the Motueka Valley. Under my nom de 'net, "Annis", I've written quite a few reviews for historical novels and the odd article under my own name.
I live close to our local WWI war memorial and as the centenary of WWI approaches, I've been working on a collaborative project with Ngatimoti historian, Ed Stevens, to retrieve some detail about the lives of the men on the Ngatimoti Memorial who served in the Great War, but have become lost in time.